The forceful personality of Vivendi Universal's Jean-Marie Messier can intimidate the most confident of bankers. One media analyst for a well-known US investment bank ended up shaking in his boots while visiting the great man, whom he describes as Napoleonic.

Sitting opposite Messier in his palatial office, on one of two facing orange leather sofas, the analyst thought the conversation was going well - until he made an uncharacteristically Gallic gesture, pen in hand, while asking Messier a question, leaving an ink mark on the sofa.